FREE ESSAY ON ABSURD THEATRE

ABSURD THEATRE

Early to Mid-Twentieth Century Influences on Theatre of the Absurd
Big feet, stampeding rhinoceroses, and barren sets are typical of the theatre of the
absurd. The dramatic content, symbolism, and spectacles are an amazing thing to see and
an impossibility to comprehend. The philosophy of the absurd and the dawn of mankind
influenced these plays in the twentieth century. The main proponents and works of the
theater of the absurd and philosophy were influenced by the chaotic actions of the early
and mid-twentieth century. These chaotic actions led them to search for something in
literature and drama never seen before. A brief survey of the main proponents and works
of the absurd philosophy and theater can lead one to an understanding of this epoch of
absurdity.
The early to mid-twentieth century has been marked by chaos. The four main events or
notions that inspired the absurd writers of this time are World War I, World War II,
liberalism, and epidemics. The two world wars had a devastating influence on Europe's
landscape and people. The two world wars knocked down everyone's fundamental belief about
society. The breakdown of values led to Freud's development of psychoanalysis. Freud,
basically, liberalized society with his new perceptions and thoughts on the human mind.
He introduced a liberal ideal that brought homosexuality out into the open in Europe.
Slowly, people went public about their homosexuality; society also learned to adapt and
accept such liberal ideas as the new standard norm for a post-war Europe. Another problem
that plagued Europe was the 
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tremendous amount of diseases and epidemics that could not be cured or treated until the
discovery, development, and production of penicillin and anti-biotics. One disease that
flourished was tuberculosis. This deadly disease spread quickly to many by air. All these
events and notions of the early to mid-twentieth century left a scare in the hearts and
minds of men about everything.
The idea of the absurd grew out of an Algerian born French writer, Albert Camus. His
novels and writings expressed a philosophy for man in the twentieth century. Due to the
wars, factions, assassinations, and political mess, his ideas expressed the lives of many
in the early twentieth century. His life was plagued with death and suffering. He could
relate to every man in Europe and North Africa. His great work, the Myth of Sisyphus,
proposed the philosophy of the absurd he was trying to build up in The Stranger and The
Plague. Basically, Camus states that since the gods punished Sisyphus with eternal work,
Sisyphus could only be happy in knowing he existed and this displayed the absurdity of
modern man and his lifetime of labor.
Albert Camus was influenced by his own absurd life. His father died during his childhood
in the Great War. He grew up with an ill grandmother and illiterate mother. He became ill
with the spreading tuberculosis of the early twentieth century. Later, he joined the
French resistance in World War II. In France, he became the editor for Combat, a
newsletter for the resistance. Through his job, he was able to make contacts with the
leading European writers of his time. This proved invaluable to him, because with the
help of these authors he gained the fame that won him the Nobel Prize in literature. Many
critics believe that his idea of the absurd grew out of seeing unspeakable acts during
the war. In Camus's Myth of Sisyphus, he actually states that his theory on the absurd is
a reaction to the disillusionment in Europe after the two world wars:
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The Myth of Sisyphus attempts to resolve the problem of suicide, as The Rebel attempts to
solve that of murder, in both cases without the aid of eternal values which, temporarily
perhaps, are absent or distorted in contemporary Europe. (preface)
He drew up the philosophy of the absurd to account for the devastating actions of World
War II. He needed an explanation for the misery in his life and the world, and until then
Christianity and the other absolute philosophies could provide no valid explanation. 
The philosophy of the absurd he initiated has three main points. First, life is absurd,
and it is useless to find any pattern or regularity within it. Second, man must accept
life as the absurd and enjoy the absurdity with happiness. Third, man cannot fight the
absurd, but simply accept that life will never have meaning. These three points combine
to form the elements in the works he called the cycle of the absurd. These three points
are derived from his belief about the absurd hero. A hero that finds happiness in daily
labor, like Sisyphus. In Rhein's Albert Camus, he complements the mid-twentieth century's
influence on Camus works:
The Stranger and the Myth of Sisyphus corresponded to the 
atmosphere that permeated Nazi-occupied France at the date of their publication...With
the daily threat to humanity that existed amid the European disaster of the 1940's, it
was difficult to believe in eternal values or naive optimism, and human life became a
consciously more precise thing. In this time when no one could just afford to exist
passively, Camus' fictive portrayal and philosophical account of the absurd hero seemed
to express the uncertainty of the 
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war-conscious Europeans; and Camus, along with Sartre, became the voice of an
anxiety-ridden people. (pg. 24)
The development of the philosophy of the absurd brought about the theatre of the absurd.
The theatre of the absurd has several characteristics. First, the main characteristic
that all absurd plays have in common is the sense that there is no meaning in life. This
theme of the meaningless in life is fundamental to the philosophy of Albert Camus.
Another characteristic of the theatre of the absurd is the belief that no God exists.
This characteristic is best expressed in Beckett's Waiting for Godot. The title has been
interpreted as saying Waiting for God. A third aspect of absurd theatre is the
conjunction of unrealistic characters and fantastic situations. The leading writers of
this branch of drama were Eugene Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, and Jean Genet. Their special
attributes and characteristics were developed by the same conditions that gave rise to
Camus. 
The father of the theatre of the absurd is Eugene Ionesco. His whimsical use of language
to express the misunderstanding and communication difficulties between individuals has
sprung him as father of the theatre of the absurd. He grew up in Romania and then moved
to France. He taught French and later traveled back to Romania. His works include the
Great Soprano, Rhinoceros, and The Lesson.
The influence for his works mainly came from the two world wars. During his childhood, he
grew up in the area that started the Great War. His father was a man that switched sides
easily; he would always manage to gain favor from any political power that was in power.
He would always join the party and administration in power, whether bad or good. The
corrupt nature of Ionesco's father changed him. He rebelled against his 
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father and his beliefs. Another aspect of his father that changed him was his secret
divorce with his mother and his abuse of power to gain custody of Eugene and his sister.

The other main influence for one of Ionesco's great works is man's inability to be an
individual. In 1938, Eugene traveled back to Romania; he saw his countrymen change
because of the war; they willed to be in the majority, whether bad or good. The
corruption in his own nation changed him and influenced him to write his anti-Nazi play,
Rhinoceros. This play centers on an average man who is tempted and tries to resist
change, but eventually loses. Ionesco manipulates language to give the audience the
sensation of a man in a foreign country. The creative use of language creates a sense of
misunderstanding, which was one of the problems in Europe during the early to
mid-twentieth century. Ionesco saw how the wars were propagated by simple
miscommunication between nations. The play propagates the sense of loneliness and fascism
symbolized by the rhinoceros, as being the Nazi influence, and Berenger, the main
character, as an ordinary man in an extraordinary situation. 
The chaos of the early to mid-twentieth century influenced Ionesco's life and work's
greatly. He struggled with the concept of the absurd and soon became the father of the
theatre of the absurd. He led men such as Samuel Beckett and Jean Genet to a greater
understanding of the absurd. 
Samuel Beckett was one of the greatest names of the theater of the absurd. He spent a
lifetime of hardship and work to overcome the challenges of his low self-esteem and
confidence. He grew up in Dublin, Ireland, in a prominent family. After college, he was
employed as James Joyce's secretary. Due to Joyce's bad eyesight, Beckett worked by his
side, day and night. His admiration of Joyce and trouble seeking his own 
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publication brought about a long depression. Eventually, he returned to Paris and won
fame with his most popular work, Waiting for Godot.
His influence comes from two aspects. His first influence is the death of his first
cousin, Peggy. On vacation, in Germany, he met Peggy and fell in love with her. Their
families disapproved their joining and eventually Beckett left. Two years later, Peggy
died of tuberculosis. Her influence is clearly seen in all his works as the Irish Studies
document points out:
Peggy was Samuel's first love and she is generally believed to be the original for the
green-eyed heroines who appear in Beckett's 
writings. (pg. 2)
He wrote her in his plays as an ideal character, but separate from time and space. His
second influence was World War II. During World War II, he was in Paris. He joined the
French resistance, but soon the German Gestapo discovered him, so he fled to the
countryside in France. It is in the countryside of France where he wrote Watt while
working as a farmer.
For Beckett, World War II was unbelievable. He found death and despair throughout Europe.
In fact, the set for Waiting for Godot looks much like most of Europe during that time.
The set is barren and desolate; the only prop is a skinny tree. This is representative of
what the war did Europe. The tanks and planes had bombed or ravaged Europe and left a
scenery of emptiness and with that a sense of loneliness and isolation. The depressing
scene leaves the stage devoid of all sense of time and place. It represents the universal
aspect of destruction and war. For Beckett, the war was enough to push him over into his
long depression. 
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The sense of time and timelessness is apparent in Beckett's works. This influence is seen
in Waiting for Godot, the audience perceives a day has passed, the actors can only guess
how many years have passed and are gone. The characters have no place to go and 
no real time left. In fact, in some of Beckett's other works he has explicit instructions
to finish the play in a certain allotted time. Maybe it was eccentric, or symbolic,
epitomizing the sense of timelessness during the war. Every day, battle lines would
change and death became so common that it corrupted the sense of life. During the war,
time was just a variable; the common goal was victory. This set Europe apart from the
United States during the war, in the sense that while Americans lived in safety, many
Europeans traveled day and night as refugees. After a while, the importance of time faded
and the only objective seen by all in Europe was an end to the war.
The works of Beckett also derive their influence from his life. Naturally, the most
memorable moments in his life are tragic such as the death of Peggy from tuberculosis and
running away from the Gestapo in France. As Gontaski states:
Although in many ways Samuel Beckett is an exemplary twentieth century romantic artist
(he has all the bohemian credentials) and although his art is built on strongly
autobiographical elements and is finally an art of failure, not achievement, much of
Beckett's creative struggle is against those personal elements, and Beckett's means are,
in part, to devalue content in favor of form. (pgs. 243-244)
Another important playwright and novelist during the epoch of the absurd was a homosexual
criminal, Jean Genet. Genet was the outcome of the rapid industrialization of Europe; his
mother was a prostitute and his dad was unknown. Since childhood, the only life Genet
knew was the streets. Eventually he spent time in several penitentiaries for 
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boys. During this time he immersed himself in the widespread homosexual community active
in the newly reformed prisons. 
Genet set his success from within prison. In prison, serving a life sentence, he
attempted to write a novel, only for it to be destroyed. He then rewrote the whole novel,
from scratch, Our Lady of the Flowers. Sartre and Cocteau lobbied for his release and
won. Later, he setup his stage success with his theatrical masterpieces. His pieces such
as The Maids, The Balcony, and The Screens made him another famous playwright in the
theatre of the absurd. 
His service in the French Foreign Legion brought about his first homosexual relationship
within a context of love. He courted and fell in love with a young hair stylist in Syria
while on duty. The rare acceptance of such liberal views accepted by the local
townspeople, made him feel comfortable and happy. Later in his life this acceptance he
freely received by the Syrians was repaid by his constant lobbying for the Palestinian
Liberation Organization.
One famous play Genet wrote is The Balcony. This play is about a Madame and her service
as she carries out her client's outrageous fantasies. His play functions as his outlet
against the bourgeois class that participated in homosexuality but never admitted it. His
anger for such people are great since they where the ones who solicited him as a male
prostitute. They always would accept him for his homosexuality but when society rejected
Genet for such, they immediately disappeared from his back. 
In general, all of Genet's plays are criticism of the French bourgeois as White
explains:
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Moreover, at a time when middle-class gay authors were promoting the metaphor of
homosexuality as illness and mounting pleas for sympathy and compassion, Genet embraced
the only other two alternatives-
homosexuality as crime or sin, a far stronger position designed to frighten his hapless
reader. (pg. 4)
He saw them with contempt and anger because they sought sympathy for other homosexuals
while being cowards about their actions. His position and works are unique because he was
not influenced as much by the war as other absurd dramatists, but instead, he was
influenced by the new liberal ideas traveling through Europe about an open sexuality.
Just like Sartre, who was associated amongst people known for their sexual
experimentation; Genet experimented, but he always saw himself first as a thief, then
whatever else.
The early to mid-twentieth century heavily influenced the artists of the theatre of the
absurd. Through the wars, epidemics, and liberalization of values, such artist were able
to effectively create works representing the new sentiment of the modern world,
confusion. Such is the basic notion of absurdity in simple language. For in its
effectiveness, lies the realization that we still do not know and probably never will
know anything about life. These artists: Albert Camus, Eugene Ionesco, Samuel Beckett,
Jean Genet, developed art for confusion based on the sole existence of irrationality
during the first half of the twentieth century.
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Works Cited
Camus, Albert. The Myth of Sisyphus & Other Essays. New York: Random House, 1955.
Center for Comparative Cultural Studies. Irish Studies. The Absurdity of Samuel Beckett.

Online. Internet. 15 March 1999.
Gontarski, S.E. The Intent of Undoing in Samuel Beckett's Art. Modern Critical Views:
Samuel Beckett. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House, 1985. 227-245
Rhein, Phillip. Albert Camus. New York: Twayne, 1969.
White, Edmund. Once a Sodomite, Twice a Philosopher. The Harvard Gay & Lesbian
Review 3.1 (Winter 1996): 4 pp. Online. Internet. 3 March 1999.
.